Medical errors are a huge problem for the healthcare industry because
it affects patient safety and can cause unnecessary injuries, long
hospital stays, and even death. The World Health Organization (WHO)
reports that millions of patients worldwide are dying each year from
preventable medical mistakes, which run healthcare systems up to
billions of dollars each year. They include mistakes that range from
misdiagnosis to mistaken medication, all resulting from broken
systems, miscommunication and paper-based procedures. Attempting to
combat this has become the main concern of doctors as it helps lower
the number of medical errors to get the better patient outcomes and
credibility in healthcare.
Healthcare software plays an important role in reducing patient errors
and is now a very strong partner to the battle against medical errors.
From electronic health records (EHRs) that centralize patient
information to evidence-based decision-support systems (CDSSs),
healthcare software is changing the delivery of care. The purpose of
this article is to share how healthcare software helps to prevent
medical mistakes, and how new tools can streamline, increase accuracy
and improve patient and clinician safety.
Medical mistakes are avoidable error in medical care and can harm
patients. They can be categorized into diagnostic errors
(miss-diagnosis or failure to diagnose an illness early enough) and
medication errors (dosages or medications that are given in the wrong
dosage, etc.). Delays in communication from care workers to patients
or between care workers and patients also lead to life-threatening
mistakes in care delivery. These mistakes are a major risk to patient
safety and also impact quality of care and outcome.
Medical malpractice hits the healthcare system hard. Studies have
suggested that medical errors are among the most prevalent deaths in
the world — and tens of thousands of patients are killed every year in
developed countries alone. The third leading cause of death in the US,
medical error – accounting for more than 250,000 deaths per year,
according to a study from Johns Hopkins University – is medical
mishaps. Apart from human costs, such mistakes strain the systems that
provide care, incurring billions in new treatments, lawsuits and the
disaffection of medical professionals.
Traditional health care institutions are particularly error-prone due
to manual processes, unintegrated data systems and a lack of
communication. For example, handwritten prescriptions can be
misinterpreted and absence of centralised records frequently results
in missing or misrepresented data when taking decisions. Limited time
available for healthcare professionals and lack of access to the right
evidence further make matters worse. These issues show just how
critical complex, comprehensive tools such as healthcare software are
to reduce error and increase patient safety.
CDSS are now a critical component in medical error reduction by
helping clinicians deliver evidence-based advice. These programs
interpret patient data and compare it with the latest medical
recommendations, studies, and protocols to make the right diagnoses
and treatments. For instance, a CDSS can be used to diagnose
conditions based on a patient’s symptoms, history and test results,
thereby preventing diagnostic errors.
Alerts in real-time are another critical part of medical software that
guards against drug or treatment error. When a doctor gives a drug,
for example, the software can recognize drug interactions, allergies
or contraindications at the very first sight from the patient’s
record. This preventive care makes health care professionals more
safe, and lowers the risk of harm. With these tools plugged into
clinical workflows, healthcare software improves patient care and
patient safety.
Furthermore, decision-support tools have been built to work under
extreme pressure, where making quick, accurate decisions is a top
priority. With physicians typically under pressure, these systems
provide a second line of defence, taking mental load off the
shoulders, and not forgetting anything vital. This synergy of deep
analytics and real-time feedback makes clinical decision making safer
and more precise.
Drug errors are the most common and avoidable medical mistakes and
healthcare software solves this problem by sending electronic
prescriptions (e-prescriptions). E-prescription means no more
handwritten prescriptions — no more potential errors due to poor
writing or transcription errors. The system is also accurate and
direct to the pharmacies, so that medication is easier and safer.
Automated medication reconciliation and tracking software further
improves precision by comparing a patient’s current medications with
the new ones. These tools notify doctors of errors, such as mistaken
drugs or conflicting dosages, preventing damaging mistakes. Then there
are the tracking devices which keep the patient updated on dosage at
all times.
Healthcare institutions can use these tools to create robust and
risk-free medication management workflows. Not only does this keep
patients from experiencing adverse drug events, it frees up provider
time to attend to the care of patients instead of dealing with
paperwork.
Communication is the most important factor in medical errors, and
healthcare software helps by providing interoperable EHRs. EHR
software combines all the information about the patient that’s
available in multiple systems into one accurate health record
accessible by licensed practitioners. This will keep care teams
up-to-date, preventing mistakes due to outdated or missing data.
Secure communications built into healthcare software also helps care
teams collaborate better. Instant messaging, video conferencing and
task management tools make it easy to communicate in real-time so
everyone is up to speed. This is especially useful in a coordinated
care environment, where multiple clinicians might be part of a
patient’s care.
Medical software makes communication and delays, the main cause of
medical errors, easier through the coordination of information.
Patients can be updated in real time, treatment can be discussed and
questions answered, which makes for a safer and faster care setting.
Implementing healthcare software often comes with great financial and
time challenges, especially if you work in a small hospital or a
community where it isn’t easily accessible. The expense to buy,
develop and support healthcare software can be high. Also there are
other expenses like employee training, system upgrades, and technical
support. Small budgets and competing demands may hinder or stymie
implementation and businesses end up settling for half-baked
approaches that do not reap the full advantages of healthcare
software.
Rejection of new technology from healthcare personnel is another
typical hurdle. A lot of providers are already used to traditional
workflows and may not want to transition to digital systems because of
usability or learning curve. Historically older solutions will be
easier to understand and more reliable while new ones are more
involved and require more time. It takes a thoughtful approach to
change management to overcome this resistance, a full-scale training
process, simple interfaces, and follow-up care so employees are
confident and comfortable working with the new technology.
Interoperability and data security is important, but difficult in a
disconnected healthcare system. Healthcare organizations have a lot of
old-school hardware that’s not built to interface with newer apps.
Such non-interoperability results in data silos, redundancies, and
misconfigurations that compromise the performance of the software. And
protecting patient data against breaches or cyber attacks is an issue,
because health data is a sensitive asset. Organizations have to invest
in safe infrastructure, stringent compliance and audits to ensure data
is secured and information is pushed seamlessly from system to system.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics will make
healthcare systems tackle medical mistakes in a whole new light.
Analytics: AI could extract patterns and trends from big data to
detect risks such as interactions between drugs, or patients
suffering, or even a discrepancy in diagnosis. Predictive models could
also warn providers about these risks before they happen in real time
to intervene earlier. Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms can
recognize the earliest signs of sepsis in hospitalised patients to
prompt interventions and cut mortality. Not only do these tools
improve the accuracy, they reduce the cognitive burden for healthcare
providers so they can focus on the patient and not the analysis of
data.
Wearables and the Internet of Things (IoT) are driving a new
generation of monitoring and error prevention. Smartwatches,
biosensors and other connected medical devices continuously monitor
patient vitals and other measures of health, and notify doctors of
deviations before they become serious. For instance, wearables could
monitor abnormal heartrate or blood glucose levels and alert patients
and providers to correct them in real time. The combination of IoT and
healthcare software further accelerates this by providing systems
where data is exchanged seamlessly and solutions are delivered in time
and with accuracy.
New software solutions are more often designed for the riskier parts
of care – surgery, critical care, emergency. High-end simulation
programs, for example, are training providers on some rare but
important scenarios to mitigate mistakes in the field. The same
applies to highly targeted clinical decision support systems for
oncology, cardiology and other complicated fields, with very targeted
guidance provided by the most recent research. These personalized
solutions along with user interface development and machine learning
help make sure that healthcare professionals have the best possible
means of minimizing errors and improving patient safety across all
care processes.
In conclusion, healthcare software reduces medical errors and improves patient safety in healthcare system. Healthcare software with high-end features including clinical decision support, e-prescribing and wearable device real-time monitoring avoid mistakes that could cause harm. These solutions make diagnoses more accurate, improve the communication between teams of care, and alert clinicians at the right time to make decisions. With the medical landscape shifting and evolving, AI, predictive analytics, and advanced software technologies will only continue to make error prevention safer and more effective for patients and clinicians alike. As long as it is integrated in the right systems, healthcare software will remain an integral part of reducing medical errors and improving quality of care.
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